Lea even appeared on Oprah before that daytime talk show went quietly into that good night.

“I believe Brazil is famous because of the transsexuals,” designer Antonio Bizarro told host Charlet Duboc. “I don’t know, it’s really common here. The fashion market embraces the transgender model. We need this kind of model.” Bizarro goes on to call transsexual models the “next step in fashion.”

Duboc interviewed trans supermodel Carol Marra, who explained that, “being a woman doesn’t boil down to genitalia.” She added, “Unfortunately, people have a distorted view of transsexualism and associate it with marginality and prostitution.”

With the advent of the “world’s first transversal style magazine,” Candy, and the success of models like Lea, Carol, Korean sensation Choi Han-bit and Top Model alum Isis King, trans models have made big strides around the globe. But is it the “next step” as Antonio Bizzaaro claims, or just another passing trend?

Make sure to visit Vice to check out other episodes of Fashion Week Internationale. We especially recommend the episode on notoriously homophobic Nigeria.